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Friday, November 4, 2016

In 2011, the New York Times wondered out loud if climate-themed novels will ''Shift Attitudes on Global Warming?'' In 2016, the jury is still out.

''The Virgin Mary of Global Warming''

[Photo by Yann Quero in France]

"I never set out to write my cli-fi novel titled ''Watershed'' per se, at least not the way it turned out. I did want to write a book about climate change. I think it’s the single most important issue we face, and will become (indeed is already) a root cause of so many other problems, including food shortages, mass migration, and other humanitarian issues. It astounds me there is so little ‘cli-fi’ out there, although I do think it’s on the rise. And on a personal note, I hope the term ‘cli-fi’ sticks and becomes as well-known and as generic as ‘sci-fi’."

-- JANE ABBOTT, in 2016, author of the cli-fi novel ''WATERSHED,'' in Australia

''Will Prize-Winning Novels Shift Attitudes on Global Warming?'' the New York Times wondered in 2011 an article by Anne C. Mulkern. The hot link is here.

Her article was prescient, because at that moment in time, NPR had not done its big cli-fi news story, produced by freelance radio reporter Angela Evancie in April 2013, and the term was still in its infancy. Now in 2016, where are we? The jury is still out in trying to answer the question posed by the Times headline: ''Will Prize-Winning 2011 Novels Shift Attitudes on Global Warming?''

As 2016 gets ready to welcome 2017, when Kim Stanley Robinson publishes his new cli-fi novel "NEW YORK 2140" about a future Manhattan half-submerged by rising seas but with residents still going on with the daily lives (YOU GOTTA READ THE BOOK TO SEE HOW!), we still don't know how much cli-fi novels are impacting society, readers or world leaders. There is still much work to be done.

But Jane Abbott, in Australia, with the quote above, ''It astounds me there is so little ‘cli-fi’ out there, although I do think it’s on the rise. And on a personal note, I hope the term ‘cli-fi’ sticks and becomes as well-known and as generic as ‘sci-fi’." ''....says something important. We hope publishers and literary critics are listening.

Back in 2005, two environmentalist writers, Bill McKibben in the USA and Robert Macfarlane in the UK, wondered out loud "Where are all the artists and writers creating works about climate change?"
We still don't have the answer. The jury is still out.

In 2011, Mulkern wrote: "A Visit from the Goon Squad," which tells the story of people connected by the music business, bounces back and forth over time. When it flashes forward two decades, it shows a world that has been altered by climate change. Trees bloom in January. A February day hits 89 degrees. Lawns and golf courses vanish because of water shortages. ''

She added:

''The award-winning novel joins a recent group of fiction books with scenes that show a world changed by or wrestling with climate change.

"People tend to write about what's current, and climate change is current," said Annie Merrill Ingram, professor of English and environmental studies at Davidson College. "Because climate change and other environmental issues are scientific, political, global, etc., they also lend themselves to interesting plot lines."

''Ian McEwan's "Solar," also published last year, tells the story of a Nobel Prize-winning scientist working on climate change. The 2009 book "Far North" by Marcel Theroux depicts people living with the consequences of planetary warming. Post-apocalyptic books like Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" symbolically speak to concerns about climate change, Ingram said.

"While a lot of the apocalyptic fiction might not specifically name climate change as the apocalyptic event, I think it's very much part of the larger sort of climate or cultural consciousness where people think about the fact that we know about this," Ingram said.

''Some environmentalists have hoped that fiction could galvanize action on climate the way other books have spurred social and political movements.

''Fiction might be the best way to reach people on climate, said John Atcheson, a former Department of Energy senior policy analyst who has written on books and global warming at Climateprogress.org, a Center for American Progress Action Fund project.

"What I sort of concluded in the twilight of my career was that people aren't motivated by facts," said Atcheson, who worked on climate change issues. "They have to feel something viscerally before they respond."

THE ISSUE in 2016/2017/2018 ....and all the way to 2099

''So Will Cli-Fi Novels Shift Attitudes on Global Warming?''

"I never set out to write my cli-fi novel titled ''Watershed'' per se, at least not the way it turned out. I did want to write a book about climate change. I think it’s the single most important issue we face, and will become (indeed is already) a root cause of so many other problems, including food shortages, mass migration, and other humanitarian issues. It astounds me there is so little ‘cli-fi’ out there, although I do think it’s on the rise. And on a personal note, I hope the term ‘cli-fi’ sticks and becomes as well-known and as generic as ‘sci-fi’."

-- JANE ABBOTT, in 2016, author of the cli-fi novel ''WATERSHED,'' in Australia